Top 5 car modifications that you must absolutely avoid

Snapshot: Not all modifications are worth having, since they do more damage than good. Here is the list of five such modification that you should absolutely avoid.

While buying a car, we make absolutely sure that we get maximum features and accessories. Most manufacturers do offer good quality accessories from their dealer network. However, there are some accessories and modification that you should absolutely avoid at all costs. Below is the list of top five accessories.

Bull bars

Almost every car uses bumpers made out of plastic or fibre. The intent of these is to absorb shock and prevent deformation of the chassis in case of low speed collision. The bull bars are made of steel and bolted directly onto the chassis. Therefore, they do not let the bumpers perform as they should in case of a low speed collision, and would only cause more damage. In an SUV that employs a heavy construction like body-on-frame, this may or may not work, but in case of cars that use a monocoque construction these definitely do not work.

Body kits

Body kits claim to enhance the looks of your car, and sure sometimes the more minimalistic ones do that. But most of the times a body kit would end up making your car look bad than it originally was. If you do not like your car, don’t buy it in hope that you would be able to improve its looks by using a body kit. That’s not the only disadvantage; the craftsmanship and reliability would not be anywhere close to what you would like.

Masked taillights and headlights

Headlights and tailights have a very important function to perform. The headlights illuminate the road thereby providing maximum visibility, while the taillights let the vehicles that are following you know that brakes have been applied, or the car is about to turn etc. Masked headlights and taillights tend to obstruct the regular function of the lamps by modifying their profile and illumination pattern. This may or may not be permitted by law but can definitely be very dangerous indeed.

Spoilers and Aerokits

Lowering the drag coefficient of a car is desirable as it helps improve the aerodynamic efficiency of the car. Diffusers, together with aerofoils also help when the car generate good amount of downforce at high speeds to gain more traction. While this may all work on a sports car that’s capable of doing greater speeds, a normal road car does not travel at good enough speeds to take advantage out of these kits. Therefore, they only add to the bulk and make the car inefficient.

Low profile tyres / bigger rims

The mileage figure that your car provides is extremely sensitive to the wheel / tyre size. The profile of the tyres also affects the ride and handling of the car to a great extent. Low profile tyres can cause the ride to become hard. While the handling may improve significantly, the low profile tyres are less forgiving than the high profile tyres and can cause the vehicle to overturn around a corner if the centre of gravity of the vehicle is too high.